Most of us take the things we do every day for granted.
We don’t realize how amazing it is that we can walk until something happens that we can’t. Luckily, most people won’t ever become paralyzed in their lives. One girl wasn’t so lucky. Bailey Murrill was playing around with her dad in her backyard when a terrible accident left her unable to walk.
It was just a few weeks before her senior prom, and she was devastated.
She explained:
“He had me over his shoulders; we were just horse playing. I flipped somehow and landed on my back. I had no feeling in my legs from the hips down.”
Bailey was rushed from Denton, Texas, to the UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. She spent the next two weeks lying in a hospital bed, unable to move her legs. She was paralyzed, and the doctors thought it might be permanent.
Bailey wasn’t about to give up, though.
She was going to walk so she started physical therapy. She went through dozens of rounds of it, and it wasn’t easy. Her friends and family were at her side through it all and helped her as much as possible. They wanted to see Bailey walk again, too. The teenager explained:
“My family and my support system and myself never lost our faith in God and put everything in his hands. It doesn’t have to be a lot, but if I could touch one person. That’s all that really counts.”
Still, the doctors told her that her chances of ever walking again were less than 5 percent.
Bailey was determined to prove them wrong. She continued to work hard and fight to use her legs. Finally, after 11 days, she started to regain feeling in her legs.
It was slow to come back, but eventually, she was able to stand. She wanted to surprise one of her favorite nurses. A family member caught it all on video.
Bailey starts to wheel herself down the hallway in the hospital toward several nurses who were gathered to talk.
One of the nurses sees her coming and puts her arms out as she walks toward Bailey. She is prepared to bend down and give Bailey a hug in her chair, but Bailey surprises her and stands up to hug her.
The nurse can’t believe what she is seeing. She is just as thrilled to see Bailey walk as her family. She grabs Bailey and gives her a huge hug. She screams:
“Yes! Thank you, Lord!”
Bailey knows that the support of her family and friends and the dedication of her favorite nurse and the other hospital workers helped her beat the odds and learn to walk again.
She eventually regained complete feeling in her lower body and can now walk and even dance. She even got to go to her prom like a normal teenager.
She said:
“Two weeks ago, I got told I had a 5 percent chance of ever walking again, and now I’m at prom. It’s awesome!”
Bailey is back on track and while she still needs some physical therapy to help her heal, even more, she is headed down the right path.
She is thankful for all the people who helped her heal and offered their support along the way. She always knew that she would walk again, and she made it a point to do so. Not only did she walk again, she did it in less than two weeks and made it to her prom.
She is definitely a lucky and determined girl. Stories like Bailey’s are inspiring and also remind us how lucky we are to be healthy and physically capable of doing all the thing we want to do. Bailey became paralyzed in a freak accident, but it could happen to everyone. Some people aren’t lucky enough to walk again.
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